By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Last November at Phoenix, Christopher Bell expressed his frustration and a sense of betrayal after not making a third consecutive Championship 4 appearance.
Fast forward to Daytona 500 Media Day Wednesday, Bell boasted confidence across the board. Not only “the fun factor” returned after Joe Gibbs allowed him to run different disciplines again such as sprint car racing in Tulsa and late models at New Smyrna. It’s the most confident the 30-year-old veteran has ever felt coming to Daytona International Speedway.
However, as much fun and confidence Bell has, there’s a sense of motivation where the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team can do much better than what the results indicate.
Bell is entering his sixth season in the NASCAR Cup Series and has finished third the last two straight Daytona 500s, giving him momentum as one of the drivers to keep an eye on this weekend.
However, despite having success with nine career wins and finishing in the top-five in points the last three years, it’s not up to the standard Bell has on himself. Therefore, the goal is to be a consistent race winner to where he truly feels it’s a breakthrough year in the sport’s premiere division.
“Winning is always great, and you need to win in this sport. Drivers who come from nothing the way they get where they’re at are through winning. There’s few in the sport and I pride myself in being one of them,” Bell explained.
“That’s been a big focus going into 2025. I’ve had successful NASCAR seasons, but not up to the standards I expected myself and hopefully this is the breakthrough year for us and win a lot.”
Bell’s mindset hasn’t changed much in terms of being a perennial playoff contender but has become a much wiser driver and so has the entire No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team.
“Looking back at last year, we had three wins and that’s not where we want to be,” said Bell. “We want to be a five-plus win team and we’re certainly capable of it and that’s where we’re striving to get to.”
With Martin Truex, Jr. stepping down from full-time competition, Bell is now the second longest tenured driver at Joe Gibbs Racing, only trailing Denny Hamlin who’s entering his 20th full season.
“It is a dream come true. I’m so, so blessed to be in this position, driving the No. 20 car,” Bell on his current tenure at JGR. “It truly is a dream come true, and hopefully I will be in Denny’s spot in a few years.”
Safe to say, having longevity has increased Bell’s confidence, but also recognizing the advantages he can take pride in.
“It’s a slow gradual increase in confidence, knowledge and experience. That’s one thing that’s very unique about our sport compared to others is the older you get, the better you get because the more experience, the wiser you are.
“It’s fun because young guys have different strengths, and the old guys have different strengths,” said Bell. “Right now, I’m in a really good spot where I’m still young enough to have the strengths of a young kid. I’ve been around long enough now where I have a lot more experience to go with it.”
Additionally, Chris Gabehart, who was Hamlin’s long-time crew chief, is now the team director. As changes are common in racing, Bell is thrilled about Gabehart’s promotion because he sees it as an overall game changer with the organization being more determined in climbing back on top of the Cup Series landscape.
The type of game changer that could begin in the Daytona 500, a race JGR won four times, but not since 2020 when Hamlin went back-to-back.
In fact, since Toyota started competing at the Cup level in 2007, they’ve only won three times – all from Hamlin.
Bell explained nothing will mean more than being the next Toyota racer to bring home the Harley J. Earl Trophy this Sunday. Ideally, he’d like it to be a 1-2-3-4 outcome that almost came into fruition in 2016 but instead ended up as a 1-2-3 finish with Hamlin besting Truex and then Toyota driver Kyle Busch.
“Toyota winning the Daytona 500 is a big deal,” said Bell. “I just go back to 2016, when they ran 1,2,3 – they were in position to run 1,2,3,4 on the white flag lap. That is what we are striving to get back to.
“The Next Gen car has definitely changed the way that Daytona is, and the way that it races. Toyota frankly, we haven’t been performing on the superspeedways, so we are putting a big effort in trying to improve our superspeedway performance.”
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